NASHUA — A failed bunt attempt which cut down the potential tying run in the seventh inning doomed Booma Post No. 6 of Portsmouth on Monday.

Portsmouth's potential big rally was thwarted and Concord Post No. 21 rallied to score four runs in the eighth frame to register a 9-5 American Legion State Baseball Tournament victory at Holman Stadium.

Concord advances to Tuesday's first championship game at 4 p.m., facing either unbeaten Goffstown or once-beaten Londonderry, who clashed in the nightcap last night.

Down 5-1, Portsmouth rallied for three runs in the seventh inning and had the tying run in the form of Billy Hartmann standing on third base with one out.

Noticing that Portsmouth batter Connor McCauley had just spoken to his coach, Concord manager Bryan Caruso called for an outside pitch from his reliever, David Drouin. McCauley never made the attempt to bunt, leaving Hartmann in a pickle. He was tagged out trying to dive back to third base.

“Just a feeling,” said Caruso. “Their batter kind of tipped off what was coming. That was a huge play because we ended up holding the lead.”

Portsmouth never recovered after that inning.

“We didn't execute the bunt and it came back to hurt us,” said Portsmouth coach Scott Pafford. “If we execute it, Hartmann scores and its a different game. There's no question it was a big play.”

In the eighth inning for Concord, Pat Cannon singled with one out and took third on consecutive walks to Drouin and Dillon Emerson. Kenny Hart made it 6-4 with a bloop single to shallow center and Braden Smith walked to push across another run. Jack Yvars added an RBI hit and a walk to Sam McManus pushed Concord's lead to 9-4.

“We've got to win two games (today) and we believe we have the pitching depth to get us to the finish line,” said Caruso. “We just have to keep scoring runs to help our pitchers.”

Pat Cannon provided Concord with an RBI single in the third inning but Portsmouth knotted the game on a RBI double from Jordan Bean.

Portsmouth starter Andrew Haslam ran into trouble in the sixth inning as Kenny Hart doubled and Braden Smith walked to open the frame. Ed Dionne cashed in the opportunity with an RBI double, ending Haslam's outing.

One out later McManus greeted reliever Jake Ray with an RBI single and Bashios plated the third run of the inning on a groundout, giving Concord a 4-1 lead. In the seventh inning Concord made it 5-1 as Dillon Emerson doubled and later scored on a pass ball. Portsmouth closed the gap to 5-4 on Rock Holt's RBI double, a wild pitch which produced a run and a run-scoring single by Hartmann.

Concord Post 9, Portsmouth Booma Post 5


Concord (3-1) 001 003 140—9-10-2
Portsmouth (2-2) 000 010 310—5-12-1

Dillon Emerson , Ed Dionne (5, WP), Dave Drouin (save) and Braden Smith; Andrew Haslem (LP), Jake Ray (6), Rich Riley (8), Ben Gareau (8) and Conor Trefethen.